Alcohols, particularly primary alcohols, are readily available in large commercial quantities. Processes to convert primary alcohols to acids fill a useful need in the industrial world. Acids have been used commercially for the manufacture of synthetic lubricants and soaps.
In the past, various processes have been developed for the production of acids. It has been proposed to treat various alcohols with an oxidizing agent in the presence of a catalyst, such as ruthenium and a solvent to produce the corresponding acids. Such processes, however, have generally produced high yields of aldehydes and rather low yields of acids. Since processes that produce high yields of acids are particularly desired, it is an object of this invention to provide a process for the conversion of alcohols to the corresponding carboxylic acids having a high selectivity to acids.
It has been found that high selectivity to acids can be achieved by a process for oxidizing alcohols to acids which comprises reacting an alcohol with a tertiary amine oxide oxidant at elevated temperatures in the presence of an oxidation catalyst comprising a Group VIII metal and a promoter comprising a quaternary ammonium bromide and thereafter separating out the acids formed from the reaction product mixture.